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"Future Type Amphibians & Wandering Plants"
Art of High Spirits by Masanta
Animal Symbolism:
Alligator - stealth, survival
Source: SDJA
"Stoneage Animal
"
Digitally Drawn Art by Siegfried Schreck
Animals and Art
There is much to say on the theme of animals in contemporary art. Animals in art shows appear throughout the world with increasing frequency. This trend reflects two complementary phenomena: a growing set of artists who address animal themes in their work, and an avid audience for animal imagery.
This should come as no surprise. The history of art teems with animals, and may indeed have begun with images of beasts painted on the walls and ceilings of caves. Since that time, animals have appeared in the visual arts in everything ranging from decoration to symbols and allegories. The current interest in animal imagery, as expressed by both artists and viewers, seems intensified by our increasingly uneasy relationships with the natural world. Our positions on animals are often marked by confrontation and confusion. We gaze with wonder at them in the zoo, yet try to avoid them on the street. Meanwhile, our pets are practically people, since we ask them to be life-long companions and child surrogates. People don’t seem to know animals well anymore, or understand what our interactions should or could mean. This anxiety informs many artists who are trying to find ways to figure out what it means to be animal, human, and both simultaneously.
The use of animal imagery to express emotion is prevalent. An artist may choose to use a horse to convey power, the fox, - deception, the bird - enlightenment…. Then there are many of today’s artists, like artists throughout history, that create images of animals to celebrate their sheer beauty of form, shape, surface, and variety, as well as their animating spirits.
So, when it comes right down to it, it’s really all about us: what we think and how we feel. We ultimately seek animals to see ourselves.
Animal Influences in Paleolithic, Egyptian and Greek Art
There are numerous ways in which animals have resonated within the
human mind. Throughout history there have been representations ranging
from the realistic, to myths, legends, symbols, and even horrific murderous
beasts; at the same time providing fascinating perspectives of our own
humanity. Various forms of art have conveyed ideas and concepts of
animal’s intelligence, as well as behavior, from generation to generation.
Animal’s in art are used as tools to make the connection between different
cultures at different time periods. In most cultures animals have been linked with the supernatural forces which were believed to control the natural world and the destiny of
humans. They were often revered as the agents, or associates, of gods
and goddesses, and were even the focus of worship as deities. Following
the tracks of historical animal art, through the human imagination
one can be introduced to a trail of creativity and unsurpassed beauty.
Have We Gone To Far? Hurting Animals For Art
Starving a dog, massacring a live pig, beating a horse….cruelty, neglect, abuse….
IS THIS ART???
This excerpt from one on-line resource: The Gin Blog
“Guillermo Habacuc Vargas had 2 children catch a dog. He paid the children for doing so. He then chained the dog and used the dog as “art”. He told everyone not to feed the dog. The dog died in the gallery. He calls himself an artist….In that event, (in which the dog died) he was chosen to represent his country in the ‘Bienal Centroamericana Honduras 2008‘.”
Shame on you Vargas! Shame on you Honduras!!
For a wide range of information on this subject Google: “Animal Abuse and Art”
Our Discussion Continues! “Randomness…”
Submitted by: lamb (lamb_bi_nature@yahoo.com) on Monday, March 1
Comment: “Hello Mary -- Thank you for inspiring this conversation. I see your words are as beautifully said as your art is, however, randomness can be thrown in your face. Just as we grasp at beauty and try to fit it into or experience and desires, life has a way of throwing in jolting randomness.
Art should never have boundaries, for life and perceptions have no boundaries. To me Art is a communication. Sometimes the communication is randomly perceived or perhaps it is randomly portrayed by the artist, yet each persons perception is random. It can be as beautiful an image as "The Pieta" or as ugly as "The Gates of hell". You cannot get away from randomness. The only two possible responses to art is to accept it or reject it.Though a piece may make us turn away in loathing, fear, or disgust, it has done its job. It communicated. Simple as that. Just because we accept or reject art does not make it any less art. It does not make it any less random either. As I said each artists rendering and the viewers responses are all random.
Art to me is communication, It is communication that transcends time, language, walk of life or spiritual mores. It can be rejected by all, but that does not make it any less art.
Sincerely --lamb (aka Patricia Jo Banks)”
Submitted by JD Jarvis (info@dunkingbirdproductions.com) on Monday, March 1
Comment: “Hey Mary -- Well at least we enjoy talking about this stuff. Randomness, probability, and consciousness are all intimately linked and are perhaps the most important topics we could or should be considering, not just as artists but as sentient beings in general.
The ‘advances’ in this field do very little to clear things up and most of it makes science and religion both seem like faith-based endeavors. But, in my own primitive understanding of this as for your coffee cup analogy... in terms of probability there is just as much chance of the particles being anywhere as in your cup. It is our observation of those particles that collapses all the other probabilities into the singularity of being in the coffee cup. So, it is our consciousness and observation that creates the ‘reality’ of coffee cup, tea and whether or not the tea is hot or cold, tasty or bitter.
To my way of thinking this all helps legitimize randomness in the making of art, especially the process of taking what is suggested by random procedures and employing them or integrating this into work that holds personal meaning for the artist. In doing so,
the artist and the work acknowledges the relationship between the randomness of the natural world and the role of human consciousness within the ongoing dance and unfolding of creation. -- JDJ”
Dear Lamb and JD -- Ah, what a hearty debate we have going, and yes, I am truly enjoying this exchange…. Personally and artistically I would love to believe without question that there are random occurrences -- and most likely there are -- however, my analytical side will not allow me to go there without a "but, what if..." course of thought.
We are truly in an infantile state of understanding when it comes to defining all things physical (and spiritual for that matter). There are so many variables that science, at its best, can only propose new questions never truly answers. Perhaps as it should be.
Let me just say, that if all artists pursued art always with conscious planning and intent then art would be for the most part, very unoriginal, uninspiring ...and boring.
Mary
"Freak of Nature"
Apocryphal Art by Teodoru Badiu
Click here to see the winners of MOCA's March Contest: MOCA
This page posted 8 March 2010
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